This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours was the first Manics album to feature lyrics solely by Nicky Wire, while all the music was written by the habitual duo of James Dean Bradfield and cousin Sean Moore. The album is a much more subdued affair compared to previous albums with many songs having a more acoustic feel.

At the same time it shows the band experimenting with studio and production possibilities, as shown in several tracks — "S.Y.M.M.", "I'm Not Working" and "Born a Girl". In the bridge of the track "Ready for Drowning" there is a sample of Richard Burton (as John Morlar from the 1978 film The Medusa Touch): "I will bring the whole edifice down on their unworthy heads".

The cover photograph was taken on Black Rock Sands near Porthmadog. Hidden behind the disc's tray is a quotation from the 1995 book, No Truce With The Furies by R. S. Thomas.